The holidays can be a very difficult time for single parents. New Year’s can be a time of reflection and sadness as one may feel disappointment that life is not at a different stage. As we walk into 2017, here are some {not so simple} resolutions we can make to help make 2017 a very different year in our own hearts and families.
- Resolve to seek contentment. This season of life is not an “in between” or a time to get through to get to what’s next. This season is designed by God and is exactly what it is supposed to be.
- Resolve to fill the empty gaps with Jesus. The loneliness when the kids are gone, the times of wishing for a significant other, the feelings of inadequacies when parenting on your own—there is nothing on this earth that can fill every one of those empty spots. No person, no escape, no substance, no distraction. And the harder we try, the emptier we feel. ONLY Jesus can do that.
- Resolve to focus more on others than on your own problems. Choose to spend less time dwelling in the pain and drama that have come before. Resolve to intentionally turn your eyes off of yourself and look to see where and how you can get involved in a world outside of yourself.
- Resolve to be the one to build community. Plan some outings, invite some people, make some phone calls. Choose to fight loneliness by being proactive. By doing so, you just may be the answered prayer in someone else’s life.
- Resolve to allow grace to have a bigger presence. Choose grace in conversations with your kids, in actions toward others and in dealing with yourself. Maybe even allow more grace in interactions with the people who have hurt you.
- Resolve to remember that you don’t really carry the weight of the world on your own. It feels like it and the responsibility can be overwhelming. But Jesus was not just making nice conversation when He told us to cast our burdens on Him. “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
- Resolve to remember that your worth does not lie in the story of your past. It does not lie in the choices people you have loved made. Nor does your worth lie in being an independent super-parent who does it all. Your worth does not lie in what a person of the opposite sex thinks of you. Your worth does not lie in who your children become and how they feel about you. Your worth comes ONLY from a Savior who sees every ugly part and died for you anyway. But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!
Happy New Year! May 2017 be very full of Jesus.
